This is for you out there who either are curious about design awards or have made a decision to enter but are looking for guidance on presenting your team’s work to a jury.

If you are reading this unconvinced of the merit of entering a design awards program, please let us to take a moment to remind you of the incredible promotional benefit to your team and client if you win, the community connection built by putting your work in front of a jury of your peers, and how the very act of documenting your process and achievements engenders a sense of accomplishment and pride throughout your organization.

Powerful imagery prefaced with a brief explanation of why the project is significant is a winning combination. 2023 C77DA Gaming Accessories Winner, Meta Quest Pro

Your Mission: Hone Your Story, Connect with Your Jury

We’ve run the Core77 Design Awards for over a decade and have found that the most important part of our job is assembling the best design juries possible. We recruit from leading creative professionals across a broad range of experience and backgrounds. They review entries online and meet virtually to debate. We ensure that every qualified entry gets in front of them. Your job is to seize that opportunity and engage them in your project’s story.

1. Jurors are unlikely to be reviewing entries while in an elevator but you should act like they are; you have limited time to hook them. Begin with a succinct project overview (500 words or less) to introduce the jury to your concept, its design features and how it fits both the market and end-user. Do that and you’ll have framed the context for what follows. If you believe your entry would benefit from further explanation use the “project details” field to delve deeper, describing your process, perspective, and the project’s comprehensive journey. This narrative should not exceed 1500 words, focusing on the innovative and impactful aspects of your work.

Renderings can nail vibe and offer insight, here to a system of physical and interactive product. 2023 C77DA Interaction Design Honoree Gatorade Gx Smart Bottle

For Branding, Identity and Visual Design entries it is important to show their application in context. 2023 C77DA Branding & Identity Award Honoree, Sun Day

The rare and elusive money shot: a single image that conveys the unique proposition of the entry. 2023 C77DA Apps & Platforms Winner Peekabook

Spaces benefit from imagery depicting the experience of being in them. 2023 C77DA Built Environment Honoree WildWoods: AGLOW

2. Seeing is Believing – We cannot overstate the importance of imagery in an entry. It is vital for conveying your project’s aesthetic and functional qualities. Show details of the realized project. Show it in context. If a user interacts with it, show the chief modes of operation. Give a complete sense of the work but edit your final collection of images with an eye toward removing repetitive, or potentially confusing, imagery. At their best, images go beyond documentation and express the spirit of the project. Submit project images in JPEG, GIF, or PNG formats, bigger is better, but for ease of uploading, limit your images to the neighborhood of 3000 pixels wide (or tall) and 15MB per file.

This promotional piece gives a taste of how past winners of the Core77 Design Awards used video to tell their entry’s story. See actual videos from winning entries in our 2023 C77DA Video Gallery

3. The end results of a design project might be too complex for images and words alone to communicate. If your entry’s story would benefit from it, use supplemental materials like project PDFs, videos, and external links to present a fuller picture of your project, creating a more dynamic presentation of your achievement. In considering how much and what to share with the jury you should seek to balance depth and brevity. Consider how each piece illuminates, or possibly muddles, your key points. Keep PDFs under 15MB and 30 pages, videos short (under 2 minutes and 30 seconds) and in mp4 format, and use external links to provide more context or background information.

Projects that overlap categories should enter all that are pertinent. “Hemi – A theraputic toy” was honored in four student categories in the 2023 C77DA.

4. Carefully consider the Category or Categories for your entry — a well-chosen category significantly enhances the relevance and appeal of your submission. Review the category definitions thoroughly to ensure your project is positioned to capture the jury’s interest in the most fitting context. Enter your project into as many categories as are relevant – good projects and presentations often bring home multiple accolades. The Core77 Design Aawards honors both professional and student work in all its categories. If you did your project at school be certain to make a student entry. On the professional side we honor only work that has been released, published or otherwise realized. However concept work whose purpose is “cultural commentary, intervention, or exploration” has a home in our Speculative Design category.

Stakeholders in a project can share ownership and recognition. 2023 C77DA Health & Wellness Honoree, Design for Social Prescribing

5. Entering an awards program is an expression of pride in work – the work put in, the work that came out. So it is important, and beneficial, to acknowledge the collaborative effort behind your project. Include the project team, as well as the client or surrounding portions of your operation in gathering materials and names for credit. In our case, use the Team Credits section to list and breakout individuals and groups as you see fit. This not only highlights the collective talent behind the project but also enriches the submission’s narrative by showcasing the depth of collaboration and expertise involved.

Don’t be intimidated, the work is done and the story has written itself, you just need to collect your materials and contributors and get it in front of the jury. That is enough to get you in the running. Take our advice and work your story into a tight, compelling narrative — you’ll honor your team and make a case for the jury to as well.

Core77 Design Awards regular deadline is March 5, 2024.

It makes absolute sense. The company that has a brand built around action and adrenaline should be in the racing business… no? After all, isn’t that exactly what Red Bull is doing? Designed by Sean Gao, the GoKart imagines a world in which GoPro goes automotive. The racing cart isn’t like anything we’ve ever seen before. It sports a gorgeously modern design with sleek surfaces that blend into each other… but the kart’s secret sauce is the fact that it has multiple action cameras integrated into its design, capturing your race from multiple PoVs. Designed for thrill but also for entertainment, the kart captures multiple streams from different angles, allowing viewers (or even the driver) to enjoy the race like never before. Easily the coolest thing to happen to karting since Mario Kart.

Designer: Sean Gao

The GoPro GoKart is a modern-day racing vehicle that brings karting into the future. Sure, you could do the rounds of a track on a gasoline-guzzling hunk of metal and fiberglass… but nothing quite beats racing around in these bad-boys. The GoPro GoKart is gorgeous to look at, sporting an uber-slick design that’s just about as gorgeous as a high-end racecar. You’ve got flowing surfaces that create the kart’s beautiful silhouette, with metal and carbon-fiber paneling that reflects light with a soft matte glow that’s subtly classy. Meanwhile, the kart comes outfitted with razor-thin headlights and taillights too, so night-time won’t stop your races.

Where the GoKart functionally differs from other karts, however, is in the inclusion of multiple wide-angle action cameras a la GoPro. These cameras can be found on the front, sides, and rear of the car, capturing multiple angles during the race. The result, breathtaking moments for both riders as well as the audience to enjoy during or even after the race. Gao proposes building an entire racing track around the kart too, with a multi-level course that are studded with cameras that add to the race feed.

The car’s cameras help capture the action right from the driving seat. A front-facing camera documents the track ahead, while a rear camera lets you see your opponents biting the dust. Cameras on the side document a much more high-stakes experience, letting you see two cars going head-to-head side by side.

The kart seats one, but aside from just a simple cockpit with a wheel and pedals, you’ve also got a dashboard with information, controls, and settings. A space underneath the steering wheel (or yoke, rather) lets you dock your smartphone, which starts the car and lets it authenticate its driver. The yoke’s central dashboard lets you see racing stats, as well as quickly toggle camera views to see what’s happening behind you. Meanwhile, video footage also gets sent to your phone, allowing you to replay your highlights after the race and share the footage with friends and fans.

Ultimately for Gao, the GoKart is a massive branding exercise for GoPro, letting it reinforce its position as the apex action-camera company. It also creates a separate channel that exists independent of the action camera business, building a sport that can be followed by dedicated fans. This helps solidify the brand, which has seen some weakening following a few corporate scandals and the rise of other companies like Insta360 and Kandao. Moreover, the karts are pretty much billboards on wheels for GoPro’s cameras, letting people experience their brilliance in the form of high-octane kart racing. If anyone at GoPro is reading this, give Sean a call…

The post The GoPro GoKart’s built-in Action Cameras capture your race like never before first appeared on Yanko Design.

Design collective Panorámica has created a machine that utilises artificial intelligence and a set of prompts to generate unique pieces of furniture based on a repository of Mexican design styles during Mexico Ciy art week.

Showcased at the design section of the Zona Maco art fair in Mexico City, the exhibition was called Anybody Can Be a Mexican Designer with a subheading that disclaimed “even if you are not a designer nor Mexican”.

The exhibition showcased the collective’s machine inside a white booth backed by a massive screen.

The machine itself is a large, white wood-trimmed box with a small screen, a coin-insertion slot and a ticket printer. Panorámica said that the look of the machine itself was influenced by the minimalist modernism practised by the German Ulm School of design in the mid-20th century.

After inserting a 10-peso coin ($0.59), users were guided through a sequence of prompts including typology, periods in Mexico’s history – from the Neolithic to the contemporary – as well as variations in colour and degrees of decoration.

The machine has a reference bank with an archive of images drawn from a “wide spectrum of what we commonly imagine about design in Mexico,” according to the collective. The software involved included a mix of Arduino, TouchDesigner and the OpenAI artificial intelligence application programming interface (AIAPI).

The combination of prompts was the processed with an image of the resulting piece of furniture displayed on a screen.

The collective called the machine a “living provocation”, asking the users to reassess certain assumptions about cultural provenance, accreditation and machine-led creation. 

“By replacing the human in certain aspects of the creative process, it forces us to rethink what we understand by creativity and authorship,” said Panorámica.

“The machine challenges the traditional notion that design is a purely human domain, opening a dialogue about the role of technology in the evolution of design,” it continued.

“It confronts us with the possibility that authenticity in design does not lie in mere adherence to aesthetics, references, and recognizable styles, but in the constant search for genuine and meaningful expressions.”

The studio also noted that the machine was meant to challenge fixed notions of the identity of Mexican design itself.

Panorámica believes it is a marker of the “turning point” that machine-learning-based image generation software represents for design and creativity in general.

“Mexican design, as we know it, is revealed not as a fixed entity, but as a constantly changing formula, susceptible to being redefined and expanded, not only within the borders of Mexico but on the global stage,” said the collective.

“This machine is not just a tool, but a powerful symbol of a new dawn in design and creativity, comparable to the introduction of the steam engine in the industrial revolution or the adoption of CAD technologies in the modernization of the design process.”

For more on how AI might affect the world of design, see the AItopia editorial series that Dezeen ran last year.

Panorámica was founded by designers José de la O, Ian Ortega, Jorge Diego Etienne, and Joel Escalona. Its past work ranges from more traditional design objects to exhibitions examining materiality in the Mexican context.

Other exhibitions that took place during Mexico City art week 2024 include an installation where Guadalajara-based studio Bolsón transformed a storefront with upcycled plastic upholstery.

The photography is by Achach Fotografía.

Zona Maco took place in Mexico City from 7 to 11 February 2024. For more events, exhibitions and talks in architecture and design visit Dezeen Events Guide. 

The post Panorámica’s interactive-AI machine lets “anybody be a Mexican designer” appeared first on Dezeen.

Wireless earbuds, particularly the so-called True Wireless Stereo or TWS earbuds, have now become a common sight, in no small part thanks to Apple retiring the headphone jack and pushing the AirPods as a solution. These accessories come in different shapes and sizes, but the one common design they share is that the buds are enclosed in a container that acts as their charger as well. As any user of these tiny buds has experienced by now, both the buds and their are often exposed to dirt and grime that could become a health issue over time. Cleaning the earbuds themselves might be trivial, but when that dirt gets deep inside the case, the task becomes significantly more difficult. This concept tries to solve that problem by practically overhauling the charging case design, and it takes inspiration from the weirdest source to implement the strangest cleaning method.

Designer: Seungjae Lee

For TWS earbuds that store the buds’ stems vertically like with the Apple AirPods, the charging cases have a small and deep tunnel where dirt and bacteria can get in and fester. It’s not impossible to clean but it does take some effort, requiring you to really stop and use some tools to wipe the dirt deep inside. If only you could blow the dust and dirt away quickly when you need to, just like with many other objects you might have with you.

The Double Barrel Bluetooth Earbuds concept offers that convenience by turning the charging case into two hollow tubes with openings on both ends. The inspiration for this design was, apparently, a double-barrel shotgun, which is probably the last thing you’d expect to associate with non-violent wireless earbuds. As a visual embellishment, inserting and removing the earbuds would light up LEDs inside the barrel, as if you were shooting bullets.

For this to work, however, the buds themselves have to be straight, which would have been awkward to wear inside our ears. The concept proposes to make the tips foldable so they would take the form of typical earbuds that you can comfortably wear in your ears. And because of the double-ended opening, you can actually put in or remove the buds in either direction.

While the concept design is definitely interesting, it is based on the rather shaky premise that cleaning the earbuds case by blowing into them is actually a smart idea. Our breaths aren’t exactly clean and, more importantly, they also carry with them small saliva particles that could damage the charging contacts inside. And by keeping both ends open, the case would actually invite even more dirt and particles inside, making regular cleaning even more of a chore.

The post Wireless earbuds concept suggests a novel and weird way to clean it first appeared on Yanko Design.

Dezeen School Shows: we’ve picked eight architecture projects featured on Dezeen School Shows that explore the sustainability of food production, distribution and consumption.

This roundup of projects includes a sustainable supermarket that grows and sells its own produce and a Lebanese restaurant that aims to guide guests on a journey to Lebanon with an immersive dining experience.

The selection of projects comes from graduate thesis, interior design, architecture and design courses at international institutions including SCI-Arc, Middlesex University, Oxford Brookes University, IE University of Spain and Cardiff University.

In the Kitchen, On the Street and At the Market by Donwon Choi

In his project, Donwon Choi proposed that architecture and cooking are similar in making, consuming and “being inherently wasteful”. The project aims to evoke discussion on alternative ways of construction, lifestyle and the application of materials.

With a focus on sustainable architecture, Choi compares the resource-intensive construction process to cooking, providing an eco-friendly framework for rebuilding built environments affected by war. 

“Architecture and cooking are similar in making, consuming and being inherently wasteful,” said Choi. “This narrative situates itself in five interrelated acts at different scales. Each act has a unique takeaway and multiple approaches to reimagining the current building culture.”

“In this expanded architectural discourse, we don’t just focus on one recipe, the plating, or the designed object and its aesthetics – everything matters.”

Student: Donwon Choi
School: SCI-Arc
Course: Graduate Thesis

View the full school show ›

Smithfield Food Skills Market by Monika Gutauskaite

Monika Gutausaite, an architecture student at Oxford Brookes University, proposed a market that aims to grow and preserve fresh produce in urban environments.

The project aims to educate people with essential culinary skills, fostering a community throughout London, where people can exchange advice, knowledge and crops.

“Although the site history is rooted in the meat trade, the amount of land required for meat production is not viable in the urban context,” explained Gutauskaite.

“Therefore the project focuses on plant-based food production in the urban environment, using traditional food growing methods with soil.”

Student: Monika Gutauskaite
School: Oxford Brookes University
Course: RIBA Diploma in Architecture

View the full school show ›

Safar by Mayssa Elsa Hadif

While studying design at the IE University of Spain, Mayssa Elsa Hadif developed an immersive Lebanese restaurant that embodies the ambience of Lebanon.

Safar is named after the Arabic word for journey and aims to transport guests to Lebanon by stimulating all five senses through food and decorations.

“If the authenticity, vibe, food and experience of a restaurant all come together perfectly, you dine with the sensation of being transported to another place,” explained Hadif.

“[Safar is] a culinary experience from start to finish, from the tables and the glassware to the paintings and decorations, the ambiance truly encompasses the country.”

Student: Mayssa Elsa Hadif
School: IE University Spain
Course: Bachelor in Design

View the full school show ›

Trash Feast by Vignesh Sankar

Architecture student Vignesh Sankar designed a portable Mexican food restaurant that can navigate through narrow alleyways, aiming to provide healthy food options for people at night.

The project utilises unsold produce from nearby supermarkets in Oxford, England, to reduce food waste.

“The building continues the provocation of Gaetano Pesce’s use of pink polyurethane foam as a whole-solution cladding in a bid to challenge veneered and ‘finished’ aesthetics in contemporary building methods,” explained Sankar.

“Its overall form is inspired by the adobe mud huts of Mexico and a friendly ‘pet’ bin with its own light-up antennae addresses littering and lighting issues.”

Student: Vignesh Sankar
School: Oxford Brookes University
Course: BA (Hons) Architecture

View the full school show ›

Street of Wheels by Paul Colfer

Aiming to improve the growing food delivery industry, Paul Colfer proposed a cooperative hub while studying architecture at Oxford Brookes University.

By renovating existing, unused buildings, Street of Wheels creates a space where delivery-only restaurants, delivery drivers and their customers can gain advice as well as recycle plastic takeaway containers, transforming them into “self-build components”.

“The project aims to create a community-owned cooperative of 10 to 15 delivery riders and five to eight relocated dark kitchens,” said Colfer.

“But as the cooperative grows, the component-led approach allows for expansion as well as disassembly if the needs of the occupants change.”

Student: Paul Colfer
School: Oxford Brookes University
Course: RIBA Certificate in Architecture

View the full school show ›

Future Liveability in the Seafood Sector: Vypin Food and Logistics Hub by Claudia Petre

Architecture student Claudia Petre aimed to enhance the insufficient processing and distribution methods of seafood in the artisanal fishing industry in Kochi, India.

The proposed infrastructure was designed to create opportunities for jobseekers, enhance the wellbeing of food supply chain workers and create a space for individuals to engage with local sustainable products.

“The heart of this network is a food and logistics hub ensuring the smooth functioning of the entire system,” said Petre. “Here, the back end and the front end of production and consumption meet, creating a new model of market.”

Student: Claudia Petre
School: Cardiff University
Course: Master of Architecture

View the full school show ›

The Woodland Resource Hub by Tay Yik Teng

Tay Yik Teng, an architecture student at Cardiff University, explored the potential of the woodlands in Treherbert, Wales, UK, investigating ways to maximise its natural resources.

In order to take full advantage of the various products and services that the site provides, Teng designed a woodlands resource hub that aims to create opportunities to support the growth of Treherbert.

“The unit delves into the abstract concept of territory and its implications on claims to space in relation to the live client, the community within Treherbert in the South Wales Valleys,” said Teng.

“This includes employing a design that lowers operation costs, is feasibly erected by local hands and produces products that can feed back into Treherbert to enrich its economy and community wellbeing.”

Student: Tay Yik Teng
School: Cardiff University
Course: Unit 03 Architecture of Territories, BSc Architectural Studies

View the full school show ›

Life Pods by Burak Ozturk

Interior design student Burak Ozturk designed a contemporary supermarket informed by modern vertical farming technology to grow and sell local produce on the same site.

Using energy and resources collected from the sun and rainwater, the project aims to utilise sustainable strategies and encourage healthy eating to reduce obesity.

“My project seeks to address responsibly in food consumption in relation to sustainability, health, community and the environment,” said Ozturk.

“The ambition is to introduce a new offer, one that helps reduce product carbon footprint via cooperating with local and existing supermarket supply chains, tackle obesity and nurture new, healthier ways to eat.”

Student: Burak Ozturk
School: Middlesex University
Course: MA Interiors

View the full school show ›

Partnership content

These projects are presented in school shows from institutions that partner with Dezeen. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

The post Eight student architecture projects focus on the food industry appeared first on Dezeen.